Programmable nanowire circuits for nanoprocessors

Nature: A nanoprocessor constructed from intrinsically nanometre-scale building blocks is an essential component for controlling memory, nanosensors and other functions proposed for nanosystems assembled from the bottom up1, 2, 3. Important steps towards this goal over the past fifteen years include the realization of simple logic gates with individually assembled semiconductor nanowires and carbon nanotubes1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, but with only 16 devices or fewer and a single function for each circuit. Recently, logic circuits also have been demonstrated that use two or three elements of a one-dimensional memristor array9, although such passive devices without gain are difficult to cascade.